Check out our list of new books added to the library in the second half of September. We make these lists available twice a month. It’s one way to see what’s new – an armchair (or desktop) version of browsing the new books shelf in the comfy area near the front door.
Also in that comfy area you’ll find a display for Banned Books Week. Many of the books in this display were challenged in school and public libraries; you’re welcome to check any of them out. While you’re at it, take a look at the Nobel exhibit, which includes clocks from the collection of Howard and Tami Cohrt. If you have ideas for displays, let us know.
Yahoo is going head to head with Google to digitize library collections – but with a difference. In their “challenge to Google” (as The New York Times puts it) Yahoo is teaming up with libraries and other partners in the Open Content Alliance. The digital archive will be maintained by the Internet Archive. They are avoiding the copyright issue by only digitizing works that are either not under copyright or for which they have permission. For this group, the object is to make works available through open access. Though not an entirely new project (the Internet Archive has been at work on a “million books project” long before Google entered the fray) this enterprise was able to capture attention through a partnership with Yahoo, a major competitor of Google. Meanwhile, publisher Tim O’Reilly chides authors who have sued Google over their library project, arguing that it’s in their own self-interest to let Google help readers find their books – a “search and rescue” mission needed to help rescue books from obscurity.
Barbara